This weekend I started planning and then, on Sunday, laying tiles. The ones at the front are laid - the ones at the back are loose in position - so at least I know they fit. It has been difficult laying the tiles as I keep over-estimating the amout of mix to make - so a lot has 'gone off' before I could use it which has lead to slow progress - and I am still worried the second row of tiles will come loose given the 'lip' they have been laid over - we shall see.
I bought some amazingly inexpensive Roman blinds from B&Q on Sunday morning when looking for floor tiles. I have just put them up and I think they look pretty good. The ones on the larger windows (�9 each) will give Joan next door her privacy - she has commented on that - doesn't like seeing me through the mottled glass :). The smaller ones (�6) I will probably keep up as much as possible, with the larger ones mainly down - as much for the sun and heat as privacy.
This shows a little more clearly the 'join' between the original plastering on the kitchen side and the new plaster. The downstairs plastering is now complete so, once it dries out (I will leave it a couple of weeks) I will be able to start painting the walls - so I will need to select colours over the next week or so.
On Friday (16th) Martin came round and completed boarding and then plastering the entrance to the conservatory.
Here is a view of the finished front wall before I made a start on moving furniture back into position - including the TV, which is showing a World Cup game (Saudia Arabia v. Tunisia).
Here is a wider shot of the side wall. You can see that I have also made a start on cleaning the asphelt floor as it always gets messed up during plastering.
When I got back from Manchester Martin was almost finished and here is the wall by the side of the stairs.
Martin came yesterday (Wednesday 15th) to complete the plastering of the downstairs walls. We cleared the furniture to make room.
These are the two radiators - both now taken off the walls - leaning on the side wall. I will move them later so that Martin can plaster tomorrow.
This is the space where the larger radiator on the front wall used to be - I plan to swap it with the smaller one on the side wall once the walls have been plastered and painted.
This morning Dave returned to take off the two main downstaris radiators as Martin needs to plaster behind them tomorrow and thursday. This is paper that was behind the radiator on the front wall - it came off very easily.
This is a slightly better close up of the pipework. It will be covered by wallboard and the plastered .. you can also see the half-litre bottles of beer I got in for the world cup games.
Dave Cottam came round on in the morning and moved the water pipes for the radiator on the wall between the kitchen and study to the study side of the wall - you can see black plastic tubing that he covered the pipes with (to stop rusting) and the white clips to hold them in place.
